Road-grader



n. c, cox. ROAD GRADER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 22, I919.

1,339,548. Patented May 11, 1920.

RALPH C. COX, OF WA UN ETA, NEBRASKA.

ROAD-GRADER.

Specification of Letters Patent. P t t May 11, 920,

Application 'filed March 22, 1919. Serial No. 284,240.

To all whom) it may concern;

Be it known that I, RALPH C. Cox, a

citizen of the United States, residingat Wauneta, in the county of Chase and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful'lmprovements in- Road-Graders, of which the following is a specification,reference being hadto the accompanying draw- This invention relates to road graders, and particularly to road graders of that type wherein atransversely extending blade is mounted upon a circle'carried by a wheeled frame, the circle being vertically adjustable to control the depth of cut made by the blade or scraper.

My invention has to do particularly with the form ofthe scraper blade and its mounting, and the object of the invention is primarily to provide a blade which is so shaped that it may be adjusted either to scrape over a flat surface or to flatten a road surface, or which may be adjusted to give greater or less crown to the road surface.

A further object is to so mount the blade that it'may be readily adjusted, as above referred to, and so that the angle of the blade'to the line of draft may be changed to thereby cause the earth which has been scraped by the blade to be shifted or crowded toward one end-of the blade and away from the other end and discharged at the end of the blade. A further object is to so form' and mount the blade that it maybe used for cutting a ditch through the side of the road and elevating the earth-from the ditch toand distributing it over thesurface of .the road,

and in this connection to so form the blade that it will have a greater length of contact with the road surface than is possible with straight blades, and that it shall mil.

terially reduce the side draft on the machine.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a side elevation of an ordinary form of road machine or scraper provided with my improved blade;

Fig.1 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view through the circle 17 showing the means whereby the circle is rotated;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the blade when the blade is set so as to crown the road, and showing the circle in elevation;

Fig. 3 is a top view of the blade shown 1n Fig. 2; z

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional View of the blade and a portion of the supporting beam therefor, showing the means for angularly. adjusting the blade; and

Fig. 5 is a top plan View of a road drag with my blade applied thereto.

In the improved blade which forms the particular subject matter 'of this application, and as illustrated particularly clearly in Figs. 2-and 3, this blade is longitudinally curved on the arc of a circle,-as shown In Fig. 3, that is the blade 10 is rearwardly bowed and the lower or cutting edge 11 of the blade, as shown inFig. 2, is upwardly curved from its ends toward its middle, if

this blade be held in an approximately vertical position. It will be obvious that by depressing the middle portion of. the blade, that the blade will be rocked upon its extremities, as upon a fulcrum, and that the middle portion of the blade will be lowered relative to the ends so that the cutting edge of the blade will rest fiat upon the ground, that is the entire cuttingedge from end to end will be in the same horizontal plane. If, on. the other hand, the middle of the blade is raised from this last named position, the middle of the cutting edge of the blade will be lifted off the ground or other surface, or will be farther from the ground or other surface than the ends of the blade, and that under these'circumstances, if the blade be used as shown in Fig. 2, it will crown the road or fit the transverse curvature thereof, as' illustrated particularly in Fig. 1. In order to secure the proper angular adjustment of the blade, I pivotally support the blade, as upon the beams 12, there being, as illustrated in Fig. 2, two of these beams pivotally connected to the scraper blade, the lower ends of the curved rear portions of the beams being secured by an ear 13 on the blade, through which a pivot pin asses into the curved end of the beam 12." Y ivoted adjacent the upper edge'of the blade are the blade to the vertical may be adjusted and that the blade maybe held latched in its adjusted position. As before stated, there are preferably two of the "beams 12 and these beams are mountedupon a circle 17 of any ordinary form, rotatably su ported upon draft bars 18, which extend orward and are pivotally secured to the forward end of the supporting frame 19 of the machine, shown in Fig. 1, so that the circle, the beams 12, and the scrapertblade may be vertically adjusted. The rotation of the circle 17 may be secured in any suitable manner such as ,is commonly form of road machine, but I have illustrated for this purpose an adjusting shaft 20 having a pinion 21 engaging with an arcuate rack on the circle 17. For the purpose of vertically ad'usting the draft bars 18 and thus vertically ad usting the circle 17, I have shown bell crank levers 22" mounted upon the frame of the machineand having rack bars 23 engaged therewith, these rack bars being controlled by pinions 24 mounted upon suitable shafts and operated by means of a hand wheel 25. All of these parts are old and well known, and I have merel illustrated a standard form of road machine, it being understood that any of.

blade. By the means shown in Fig. 1, the

blade ma be rotated from a position at right ang es to the line of draft to a position at less than a right angle to the line of draft, and the blade may be raised or lowered as a whole or one end of the blade depressed and be left in its raised positlon. In other words, the blade isadjustable 1n the same manner as any other scraper blade.

In Fig. 5 I have illustrated my improved blade applied to a road drag of common form, two of these blades 10 being shown, disposed one behind the other, and con.- nected by beams 26, the blades being set gt different angles b means of the shafts 2 one for each bla e, each shaft being provided with a handle 28 moving over a rack and each shaft having at its opposite ends, arms 29 connected by links 30 to arms 31, the equivalent of the arms 14 shown in Fig.

4, pivoted to the blade adjacent its upper; suitable draft devices are apedge. An

)lied to t is drag in the usual and well lcnown manner and it is operated in the same manner as an ordinary drag, but, as before stated, by adjusting the angle of the blades to a vertical plane, the cuttin edge of the scraper blades may be so a ju'sted.

- that the'blades will conform to the crown of a road or may be cut flat, that is cut over 'a level "surface .as distinguished from a crowned surface.

It willbe obvious that if the bottom edge of a blade constructed as I have described is disposed in a horizontal plane and the used in thisscraper 0r grader is driven down the middle I of a road in bad repair, that is a road which has been badly cut'up after a rain, or badly rutted, the blade will act to surface the road and render it absolutely level. The blade will cut off the high portions-of the road and the curved blade will carry the looseat less than a right angle ,to the 'lineQof draft, scraped up dirt may be caused to travel from one end of the blade toward.

the other and dirt may be brought from the margin or ditch side of the road toward the middle of the road. The ditch end of the blade may be set in deep and still carry the earth the full len h of. the blade.

It has been foun in practice that this form of blade mounted as illustrated in Fig. 1 is particularly effective for cutting a ditch at, the side of the road and distributing the material over the road itself, and

has many advantages over a longitudinally straight blade having a straight lower edge.- Such a straight blade, when disposed at the angle to a horizontal plane necessary to out a.- ditch, has but little of its edge in enga ement with the road surface and hardly more than elevates the cut dirt from the straight blade of the same length, the reason being that the front end of the straight blade hasto run nearly parallel with the line of draft to keep it steady in the ground.

and also to start the earth travelin with. the blade, and to prevent too muc side draft. The straight blade set at this necessary angle delivers the dirt but a short distance toward the center of the grade, par

ticularly during the first andsecond rounds, and this allowsconsiderable of the scrapedup dirt to escape beneath theelevated end of the blade. A blade which is rearwardly bowed and has its lower edge upwardly curved, as in my blade, permits the cutting end to be set at a particularly eflicient angle, that is with its forward end nearly parallel with the line of draft, while the rear end of the blade is at such an an le that it will deliver the earth much fart er upward on the crown of the road than otherwise possible. Inasmuch as the cutting edge is upwardly curved, the upward curvature mi {by mat-Ema edge may be increased relative to the i .-u.rface by tilting the top of the blade forward, and this permits the front of the blade to be depressed deeply in the ditch while the rear end is elevated to an extent which will not allow any portion of the earth to escape beneath the rear end.

Attention is particularly called to the fact that the shape of my improved blade practically eliminates or greatly reduces side draft, which is a serious problem in all machines of the side delivery type, and in cutting ditches, the side draft may be entirely eliminated. This is because the forward end of the acutely angled blade may be set parallel to the line of draft or even slightly past this point so that the back of surface and the road surface runs gradually down into the ditch and this gives to the ditch a rounded shoulder. This permits a vehicle to travel nearer to the ditch without danger, than it otherwise could. This is a decided constructive economy, particularly on relatively small roads where only a passing width is required and a deep drainage ditch is necessary.

making the blade longitudinally curved, the cut dirt rolls backward along the inclined blade and the blade scours better. that is travels laterally more quickly than it otherwise would do. This also lightens the draft, as the better the scour, the quicker the delivery and the lighter the draft. Pushing the dirt bodily forward means heavy draft. The rearward curvature of the blade and the upward curvature of the lower edge, with the adjustment for controlling the angle at which the blade is tilted, allows for either cutting a plain and flat surface or a surface of any desired crown and it is possible by tilting the blade at an acute angle to the horizontal to even cut a concave contour, as for a shallow ditch, which is often desirable in road work. Furthermore, in maintenance work,

the blade may be set straight across the road and easily and readily adjusted for the desired crown. Under these circumstances, it

carry relatively large quantities of dirt from high points to depressionsor mudholes.

Where the blade is used for a road drag, as illustrated in Fig. 5, the drag will-not skid or move laterally on the crown of the road. A drag which is straight across the high center of the road, as it is impossible.

to keep such a drag on the top of a high center and going up one side of the center and back on the other side of the center will increase the peak at the middle of theroad, and, as before pointed out, the blades, by reason of the fact that they are transversely bowed and have upwardly curved lower edges and are adjustable as to the angle of incidence, may be used either on perfectly flat roads or on a crowned road.

It will be noted from Figs. land at that the blade 10 is slightly concave, that is is rearwardly curved or bowed from its upper to its lower edge. This curvature permits the blade to act somewhat in the manner of the .moldboard of a plow when the blade is turned into an acute angle to the line of draft and tends to keep the dirt in advance of the blade more compressed, inasmuch as the dirt will roll up in front of the blade as the dirt moves laterally.

As I havebefore stated, I do not wish to be limited to any particular mounting for this blade or any particular adjustment for it, except mounting the blade so that it may be tilted to thereby cause the lower edge of the blade to be set so as to conform to any desired curvature of the road surface. Of course, it will be understood that the curvature of the blade as illustrated in thedrawj ings is somewhat exaggerated in proportion to the size of the machine shown.

I claim 1- 1. A scraping blade for road grading or scraping machines, said blade being bowed rearwardly and having its lower edge curved'upward uniformly and continuously from its ends toward its middle.

2. In a road grading or surfacing machine, a rearwardly bowed blade having its lower edge curved upward uniformly and continuously from its ends to its middle, and means for pivotally supporting the blade for tilting adjustment in a vertical plane perpendicular to the blade, and means for holding the blade in its adjusted positions.

. 3. A road grading or surfacing machine having a scraping blade which is rearwardly bowed, the ends of the scraping blade extending forward and the lower edge of the blade being upwardly bowed from its ends toward its middle.

4. A road grading orsurfacing machine having a rearwardly bowed scraping blade, the ends of which extend forward of the middle of the blade, the lower edge of the blade being upwardly bowed uniformly and constantly from its ends toward its middle, the blade being tiltably mounted to adjustably vary the angle of the blade to a horizontal plane.

5. A road rading or surfacing machine having a blade uni orml bowed rearward fromend to end, the en s of the blade being in advance of the middle of the blade, the lower cuttin edge of the blade being concavely .curv'e .unlformly-from end to end, means for supporting the blade, and means for tilting t e blade into different angular relations to a horizontal plane.

6. A road gradin machine including a wheeled supportin ame, a scraping blade 'rearwardly bowe from end to end, the lower edge of said blade being upwardly curved from its ends toward its middle,

means for sup orting the blade upon the wheeled frame includin means'whereby the blade as a whole may adjusted to various angles to the line of draft, means where-' by the blade may adjusted to raise one end of the blade higher than the other, and

means whereby the blade may be tilted forward or rearward with relation (to a trans verse vertical position.

'1. A road grading machine including a wheeled supporting frame, a circle mounted pivotally mounted upon the ends of said beams for tilting movement, and'means' for plane and held in its adjusted wardly curved, said scraping blade being holding the scraping blade in tiltably-ad- I j usted positions.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature.

RALPH c; 00X. 

